take your answer off the air...

Talker's MagazineThe quirky talk radio trade mag. Check the Talk Radio Research Project- it's not very scientific, but places on the top 15 talkers list (scroll down to Talk Radio Audiences By Size)) are as hotly contested as Emmys (and mean just about as much).

The AdvocateNo, not THAT Advocate... it's the Northwest Progressive Institute's Official Blog.

Media MattersDocumentation of right-wing media in video, audio and text.

Orcinushome of David Neiwert, freelance investigative journalist and author who writes extensively about far-right hate groups

Hominid Views"People, politics, science, and whatnot"
Darryl is a statistician who fights imperialism with empiricism, gives good links and wry commentary.

Jesus' General An 11 on the Manly Scale of Absolute Gender, a 12 on the Heavenly Scale of the 10 Commandments and a 6 on the earthly scale of the Immaculately Groomed.

Irrational Public Radio "informs, challenges, soothes and/or berates, and does so with a pleasing vocal cadence and unmatched enunciation. When you listen to IPR, integrity washes over you like lava, with the pleasing familiarity of a medium-roast coffee and a sensible muffin."

The Moderate VoiceThe voice of reason in the age of Obama, and the politics of the far-middle.

News Hounds Dogged dogging of Fox News by a team who seems to watch every minute of the cable channel so you don't have to.

HistoryLinkFun to read and free encyclopedia of Washington State history. Founded by the late Walt Crowley, it's an indispensable tool and entertainment source for history wonks and surfers alike.

right-wing blogs we like

The Reagan WingHearin lies the real heart of Washington State Republicans. Doug Parris runs this red-meat social conservative group site which bars no holds when it comes to saying who they are and who they're not; what they believe and what they don't; who their friends are and where the rest of the Republicans can go. Well-written, and flaming.

June 15, 2011

A radio biz guru has said, "Any good host or exec will tell you that he is in the audience acquisition, retention and expansion business, to maximize the value of their spots."

(photo: Sean Hannity bumps it with a trumpet)

So if you still think your favorite firebranding, freedom-loving, uber-patriotic talk host does what he or she does, says what he or she says, out of pure love of god, country, and the American way, you're just a dittohead.

Politico reports that top national radio talkers are being paid millions$, literally, for right-wing activist lobbying groups whose messages are not only carried in ad copy, but also swirled into show content with only occasional or casual mentions that their messages are bought and paid for by these sponsors.

(photo: Laura Ingraham got dumped)

Freedom Works, is working hard against front-runner Mitt Romney... and guess what? so is Glenn Beck, who got around $1.4 million from the well-financed Republican phony grassroots "tea-party" front guided by Dick Armey.

Mark LeVin (that's not pronounced to rhyme with 'seven,' say it the French way, accented on the 2nd syllable, leh VIN, except misprounce the 'vin' part to rhyme with 'sin') gets 1.2 million for his sponsorship of Americans For Prosperity, a Koch Brothers-funded astroturf tea party organization.

Levin, whose endorsement deal with the tea party organizing group Americans for Prosperity started last summer, was similarly protective of his sponsor last year after President Barack Obama singled out the group in making the case that anonymously funded attack ads were distorting the midterm elections.

“Americans for Prosperity is a magnificent organization that people join voluntarily. You. Me,” Levin said on his syndicated radio show. Obama, Levin continued, “wants you to hate Americans for Prosperity. So if he wants you to hate it, then you should embrace it, and promote it, and support it and join it, because it’s effective.”

The Heritage Foundation, the grand-daddy conservative bullshit delivery system started this in 2008 by buying Laura Ingraham. They dropped her and now gives Rush Limbaugh $2 million and Hannity $1.3 a year to plug membership drives, and to defend the well-financed foundation when it's feeling persecuted (which is most of the time).

(Beck and many other conservative talkers have long been integrating their sponsors' messages into their "entertainment" with their 1-2 punch selling gold at incredibly inflated prices. First he predicts a dog-eat-dog Mad Max world after a collapse of the US financial system, (coming any dy, now) then pitches Goldline products as a hedge strategy. Dittoheads are some of the most gullible people in the world, loyal to a fault and willing to believe anything these on-air hucksters sell, whether it's their loopy politics or gold retailed at prices as much as 5-10X the cost on the real market).

It's working and working real good.

Heritage estimates that it in each of the past two years, its sponsorships with Limbaugh and Hannity brought in more than 40,000 new memberships starting at the $25 level, while FreedomWorks said that in the three months after its Beck sponsorship started in April 2010, the group saw a huge spike in traffic to its website (which featured a photo of Beck linked to a fundraising appeal), resulting in 50,000 new email sign-ups.

There's nothing illegal about this, unfortunately, although old broadcast ethics have been flushed ignominiously down the golden executive toilets of these values-thumping whores.

“I wish more of the grassroots knew the reality that this wasn’t Rush or Sean or Beck saying these things out of the goodness of their hearts,” said the leader of one [conservative] group who inquired about ads on various radio shows, but decided they were both too expensive and ethically suspect. “If the grassroots found out that these guys were getting paid seven figures a year to say this stuff, it might leave a bad taste in their mouth.”

Dittoheads manipulated and their loyalty exploited? Nothing new there, but we think such partisan political activism that's bought and paid for should be daylighted like other political advertising.

There is nothing like this on the left. If it were ever revealed that, say Randi Rhodes or Thom Hartmann were being paid to mix corporate or political sponsors' messaging into their show content, there'd be hell to pay.

“The point that people don’t realize,” said Michael Harrison, founder and publisher of the talk media trade publication TALKERS Magazine, “is that (big time political talk show hosts) are radio personalities – they are in the same business that people like Casey Kasem are in – and what they do is no different than people who broadcast from used car lots or restaurants or who endorse the local roofer or gardener.”

The radio-consuming, dittoheaded, conservative base don't seem to care: with blind trust they eat what's fed to them... and shell out their bucks as directed. They deserved to be suckered... but the rest of us have to work hard to stop these messages from slopping over to pollute the mainstreams.

February 27, 2011

Frank says, "I will return to a very familiar role at KIRO. They assure me that I will be filling in on a variety of shows. I'll also work in production, writing, voicing and producing commercials."

Ironies of ironies, the guy who's responsible for all the changes at the KIRO's Program Director Ryan Hatch is leaving Eastlake.

Hatch writes: "In one of the toughest decisions I’ve ever had to make, my family and I are heading back home to Phoenix. I absolutely love the people and products at Bonneville Seattle, and I’m proud of what the team has accomplished."

He says he'll be Bonneville's VP of News and Sports in Phoenix, and may be here for the next few months during transition of the new PD ...as yet unnamed.

Hatch fired Gregg Hershold, and Jane Shannon and hired Bill Radke and Linda Thomas for the morning news. He hooked-up (so to speak) sparkling punketeur Luke Burbank to the iconic, ironic Dave Ross on mid-mornings. He dumped restaurateur Tom Douglas from his Saturday gig, and fired neither Dori Monson in the afternoons, nor Ron & Don in the PM drive. He did lure local teevee has-was John Curley to replace Frank Shiers in the weekevenings. He got George Noory's Coast to Coast for the wee hours.

We won't recite all Hatch did with sporty KIROAM because we don't care, but for KTTH, he killed 2 of 3 hours of Dave Boze's live and local PM drivetime show, snagged re-runs of Sean Hannity, Lars Larson and Laura Ingraham.

It was a mighty busy year; Ryan Hatch might not have made a lot of friends in Seattle, but he sure made a difference... and left a bloody trail.

September 27, 2010

No doubt about it: it's hard to be a radio talker at the Fisher "group." (KOMO, KVI). Even if you were spared in the recent beheadings and furniture re-arrangement at KOMO and KVI, you don't seem to get much institutional help.

Poor KVI. Bryan Suits (m-f, 5-9a) leads into Laura Ingraham on tape, followed by Sean Hannity, (never a ratings winner in Seattle) then Laura Ingraham is repeated at drivetime!!

This could be because Fisher doesn't have their shit together enough to grab another syndicated show (not inconceivable) OR, as many believe: they'll pull the plug on the whole station as soon as they get that shit together. (Sell? reformat? ...depends on which rumor mill you choose to abide by).

The "new" talkers on KOMO are even more neglected. They finally got names for their new daypart shows: NewsPlus with John Carlson and Schram On The Story. They went without that basic need for a week or so: Schram repeatedly bemoaned it on-air, calling his the Show With No Name until they finally came up with some names.

There are no logos or ad promotion for either show on the lame KOMO radio web page. Never mind show pages, blogs or podcasts. It's quite amazing. Reading the KOMO home page, or the news page, you wouldn't know Carlson and Schram exist.

KIRO, their ace-boom competition, has a dynamo of a site, which is being used to great advantage by their talkers and producers; so why does Fisher choose to lag so far behind in on-line presence? (Even their on-line presence is mostly warmed-over, with very little web-only content and interactivity with listeners. Frinstance: Schram's commentary is there, but it's really the one he did for both teevee and radio).

One thing everyone can agree with in the brave new media world, is that web platforms are key to broadcasting's future. Fisher knows this (they have enough consultants, for god's sake) so why do they choose to ignore it?

September 20, 2010

We're telling you: three hours a day of Laura Ingraham's scolding is more than enough -- an overdose in any market -- not to mention on a single station, every weekday. (Her toil and trouble bleeds over annoyingly into other stops at the bottom of the ayem dial).

But Fisher (KVI, KOMO, Star 101) suits in their finite wisdom have, have apparently decided to REPEAT Laura Ingraham in afternoon drive after playing her live in the 9 ta noon.

September 14, 2010

Autoeroticism took a big hit tonight, as former abstinence counselor, Christine O’Donnell knocked over Mike Castle who was comfortably on his way to capturing Vice President Joe Biden’s former Delaware Senate seat for the Republicans.

She’s a cutie: A scrubbed up and perky born-again Catholic, one of those rare, extremist winger women on Fox News who isn’t blonde. She's definitely talk radio and Fox News' choice in the race.

May 20, 2010

Eggshells, that’s what they’re walking on as the hits keep on coming in the Bonneville blabber cluster, KIRO, and KTTH. New PD and chief executioner Ryan Hatch is said to have Dave Ross and other longtime KIRO talent’s
heads on the block. Veteran morning charmer, Gregg Hersholt is said to be one of them. (photo: Ryan Hatch)

Meanwhile, down the hall at KTTH, embarrassing flamer Michael Savage is, without fanfare, finally gone. His refried satellite show has been replaced by everybody’s least favorite place-holder, Fox Radio’s John Gibson (m-f, 6-9p). Gibson is a reheated morning show. If past is prologue, we should be seeing somebody else in the slot eventually. Gratefully, Gibson is usually used to plug holes in schedules.

Dave Ross has been the only progressive voice in the otherwise conservative KIRO line-up. If Ross goes, it will complete what seems to be a Bonneville process of converting KIRO, long a “mixed format” (left and right) station to the industry norm of all conservative talk. (Like we were just sayin': what this town needs is another right-wing station...)

Ross has long been up against Limbaugh and right-wing ranters like Laura Ingraham. Dave recently told Burien’s Highline Times, "I can't do a Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh type show. I can't put on an act for three hours a day. I have never found name-calling interesting to do."

KVI am 570 KHz Visit the burnt-out husk of one of the seminal right-wing talkers in all the land. Here's where once trilled the reactionary tones of Rush Limbaugh, John Carlson, Kirby Wilbur, Mike Siegel, Peter Weissbach, Floyd Brown, Dinky Donkey, and Bryan Suits.
Now it's Top 40 hits from the '60's & '70's aimed at that diminishing crowd who still remembers them and can still hear.

KTTH am 770 KHzRight wing home of local, and a whole bunch of syndicated righties such as Glennn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Medved, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Lars Larsony, and for an hour a day: live & local David Boze.